The Ohio-class submarine USS Georgia is nudged into its berth at Norfolk Naval Shipyard Thursday afternoon. The TRident submarine is undergoing a conversion to a guided-missile submarine (SSGN) and a refueling. It will serve as a stealth platform for conventional cruise missles, tactical battle coordination and SEAL deployment. [Photo shot December 16, 2004] (CQ)

Former Virginia Senator John Warner and his wife, Jeanne, react to the crowd on Saturday, Aug. 1, 2015, during the commissioning ceremony for the Virginia-class nuclear submarine John Warner at Norfolk Naval Station.

The Ohio-class submarine USS Georgia is nudged into its berth at Norfolk Naval Shipyard Thursday afternoon. The TRident submarine is undergoing a conversion to a guided-missile submarine (SSGN) and a refueling. It will serve as a stealth platform for conventional cruise missles, tactical battle coordination and SEAL deployment. [Photo shot December 16, 2004] (CQ)

Former Virginia Senator John Warner and his wife, Jeanne, react to the crowd on Saturday, Aug. 1, 2015, during the commissioning ceremony for the Virginia-class nuclear submarine John Warner at Norfolk Naval Station.

NEWPORT NEWS

The division of labor on a new shipbuilding program to replace 14 Ohio-class submarines, a key part of the nation’s nuclear deterrence strategy, has been announced by the Navy.

Connecticut-based General Dynamics Electric Boat will be the lead design yard and prime contractor for the 12 Ohio-class replacement submarines and will deliver all of them, the Navy said in a statement Tuesday.

Huntington Ingalls Industries’ Newport News Shipbuilding will participate in the design and will construct “major (Ohio-class replacement) assemblies and modules,” performing 22 to 23 percent of the work as a subcontractor.

The Newport News yard will also be “performing additional deliveries” of Virginia-class submarines, the Navy said.

“We are pleased to be a significant design and manufacturing participant in the Ohio Replacement Program and take on a larger role in Virginia-class deliveries with our partners at Electric Boat,” Christie Miller, a Huntington Ingalls spokeswoman, said in an email.

The specifics of the yard’s increased role in the Virginia-class program “are still being worked out,” she added.

The Navy testified about the new program at a hearing in late February, though it was not widely noticed. It was cited, however, in a March 8 update to a Congressional Research Service report.

The two shipyards are the only ones in the nation that build nuclear submarines. They jointly build Virginia-class attack submarines; the work is done in modules, split roughly in half. The yards alternate deliveries of the vessels to the Navy.

The Navy will need 12 Ohio-class replacement vessels instead of 14 because the midlife overhauls of the newer vessels won’t include nuclear refueling – they’ll each have a “life-of-the-ship” nuclear fuel core – requiring less time, according to the Congressional Research Service.

Electric Boat’s lead role in the program had been expected. The two shipyards participated in the formulation of a strategy for building both classes of submarines at the same time and both agreed to it, according to the March 8 Congressional Research Service update.

The total cost of the program is projected to be roughly $95.8 billion (in fiscal year 2015 dollars), according to a March 2015 Government Accountability Office estimate.

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Bob has been a staff writer at The Pilot since 2000, where he’s covered the region’s waterfront for nearly a decade. A graduate of Fordham University, SUNY Buffalo and the University of Missouri, he has worked at papers in Florida and Massachusetts.

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robert.mccabe@pilotonline.com

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